Chapter 7
Chapter 7: The Counterattack of the Sane
In stark contrast to the delusional portrait Renata had painted in her fake file, Doña Teresa entered the interview phase with absolute composure, striking clarity, and an extraordinary memory.
The grueling evaluation lasted an intense forty-two minutes.
Without stumbling once, Doña Teresa recited the current exact date, her precise home address, and the names and birthdates of every single one of her grandchildren. She listed in detail her blood pressure medications, the correct dosages, and even recited the approximate balance in her bank account.
To completely prove her flawless cognitive function, she rattled off the highly complex, traditional recipe for the mole sauce she made from scratch every September 16th for Independence Day, without missing a single ingredient.
She passed every short-term and long-term memory test Dr. Aranda presented without a moment of hesitation.
And then, she began to tell the real story.
In a steady, ironclad voice, Doña Teresa detailed the exact date and time Renata had stormed into her room and violently ripped her only mobile phone from her hands. She described the physical sensation of being dragged across the hallway floor against her weak resistance, the chilling sound of the key turning twice in the lock from the outside, transforming her bedroom into a dark prison. She recounted how Renata systematically began spreading vicious rumors to the neighbors, completely isolating her from the outside world.
Renata sat in her chair, beads of cold sweat breaking out across her forehead. Unable to endure it any longer, she leaped up, desperately trying to interrupt her mother-in-law:
"Doctor! Please don't listen to these paranoid delusions! This is all a setup! She and her son are conspiring to ruin me! Andrés has been brainwashed! This old woman has hated me since the day I married into this family! She is just taking her revenge on me!"
Dr. Aranda looked at Renata coldly, not raising her voice, but delivering a razor-sharp question:
"Renata, could you please explain to me, based on what medical protocol you deemed it necessary for an adult woman—who is fully independent and possesses such pristine mental clarity—to be locked inside a room with a deadbolt on the outside, stripped of all communication devices, and deprived of her freedom of movement?"
Renata stammered, running a hand nervously through her hair, desperately clinging to her last lifeline, reciting the exact excuse she always used:
"It... it was for her own safety, Doctor. I was terrified she would wander off and get hurt..."
At that exact moment, Andrés, who had remained entirely silent, casually pulled out his mobile phone and placed it in the center of the doctor's desk.
He pressed Play.
Renata’s slurred, drunken voice from the night before echoed clearly through the sterile silence of the clinic:
"...Nobody is going to believe an old woman locked in a room... I've spent months convincing everyone she is insane..."
Renata turned the color of ash, stumbling a step backward.
Andrés didn't stop. He swiped the screen and played the next audio file. Mauricio the hustler's voice rang out, reeking of greed and dirty calculations:
"...Once that old hag is officially declared legally incapacitated... not a single agency will question us liquidating that house..."
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Finally, the phone screen played the high-definition video from the hidden smoke detector camera: clear footage of Renata looking furious, dragging Doña Teresa down the hallway, shoving her into the room, and locking the door.
Undeniable proof. Every argument she had was completely annihilated.
